Approved Submission Nodal Support Bit Launcher Update

[Rizzo]

Submission URL

https://wiki.stararmy.com/doku.php?id=stararmy:weapons:ke-m2-w2704_nodal_support_bit_launcher

Submission Faction(s)

1. Yamatai (except Elysia)

Submission Terms

1. I agree

If you're gunna be the bad guy you may as well do it with style! Enjoy the Cartoon as we take a journey into the magical world of the NSB launcher.
Have you ever looked your enemy deep in the eyes of your enemy during a fight and pointed at him while saying "I'm not touching you" repeatedly?
If yes, you probably main the Nodal Support Bit Launcher!
A batch of 12 "finger sized drones" that form a "cloud" around the Mindy are capable of delivering HUNDREDS of rounds per minute upon your foe. Being classified as a mighty T7-8 artillery piece it is clear that this is even less likely to one-hit kill tanks than the Aetheric Pulse Cannon. Now for my obligatory explanation as to why.

What is a Nodal Support Bit?
Seen in science fiction series like Gundam, they are basically guns minus the furniture for human plus a propulsion system. We can see the NSBs in this article to the leg mounted NSB launchers classified at T2. So essentially it's a hoard of NSPs going brrrrttt, the definition of death by a thousand cuts. So why bother with such a crazy low powered weapon on your power armor armor? The answer is easy. It's 12 NSPs! No need to worry about missile spam anymore, you can swat them at lightspeed. Hoard of Rixxicor got you pinned down? Not anymore! Need to pacify an unruly mob? no need to spill blood here, set to stun and let slip the bits of riot control! Peek corners, surveillance via ventilation, and good luck shooting them down. It does everything it says on the tin. Support Bits are here to support your bits!

What is the change?
Again applying the WepLim method of weapons scaling, 2 T2 weapon are equal to a T3, 2 T3 = T4 and so on. It's the perfect opportunity to consider this as an extremely flexible weapon system that can focus fire into a Tier Equivalent Weapons Group up to T6 if you bring the leg pods too, all using flying NSPs. As this article has never been updated to v3 we can assume that the T7-8 is just as v3 conversion rules state, "
the rough conversion offered above is indeed 'rough'." I'm sure there is no one debating a hoard of 12 NSPs equals an aether cannon like found on the Nodatchi.

 

[Commissar Farzi]

I mean...you throw enough fire in the general direction of anything and something is going to get through with predictable results.

 

[Soban]

I use the NSB a lot, and they are one of my favorite pieces of kit. Having them surround your character in a wreath of weapons fire is particularly awesome. That said, I don't think they've been particularly effective on their own. So a low tier rating for a single one makes sense. They can survive perhaps thirty seconds outside of a CFS if they don't shoot anything.

 

[demibear]

I have always used them as point defense/anti-personnel weapons when used to have characters use a Mindy. So it tracks individually they are just pistols, but collectively they could punch through something thin enough (mainly power armor).

 

[Rizzo]

@Wes and @raz, as it will keep coming up during these updates I want to specifically point out that just like the aetheric pulse cannon these are both seeing the simple conversion from ADR 4 to T7-8.
Surely no one would argue a single bit should be dealing T7-8, the same as a tanks main cannon, PER SHOT. This is further evidence that rapidfire weapons do not translate on that chart just as Fred warned that it wouldn’t

 

[Fred]

I would weight in that these are more or less handleless floating Nekovalkyrja Service Pistols with only the default single shot available to them. So, yeah, rule of common sense should apply here.

I think there are Nodal Support Drones, which are a larger version on the NSBs (hand-sized, rather than finger-sized) that's more like a full featured Neko Service Pistol with normal/stun shot, burst mode, and flashlight. Burst mode is Heavy anti-personnel, so, the NSB's normal shot is clearly beneath it.

 

[raz]

@Wes and @raz, as it will keep coming up during these updates I want to specifically point out that just like the aetheric pulse cannon these are both seeing the simple conversion from ADR 4 to T7-8.

The current article states that the NSBs are "DR 4," which was common shorthand for PDR 4, the most basic DR unit, not ADR 4.

The NSP's standard pulse mode was also PDR 4 pre-conversion to match the NSBs.

PDR 4 converts to Tier 2 under DRv3.

You are extrapolating incorrect conclusions about the Pulse Cannon based on how you've mistaken what the current NSB article says. But despite that mistake have arrived at the correct conversion to DRv3 of Tier 2 (the same as an NSP's regular pulse mode) for a single NSB.

This further tracks if we take the DR listed on the NSBs as an extremely outdated DRv1 "DR 4." Conversion to DRv2 asks that we "divide the old value by 2," which puts each NSB at DRv2 PDR 2. That would convert to an even lower powered DRv3 Tier 1. Which also makes sense for the NSBs' form and function.

The shoulder mounted pulse cannon is Tier 7 or 8 because it started out as ADR 4. These NSBs are correctly Tier 2 because they started out as PDR 4 or DR 4. Different weapons of different sizes that have different purposes and different DRv3 tiers at the end of the day.

 

[Wes]

I concur, I think Tier 2 is the correct DRv3 damage rating for an NSB, but I'm not convinced that we should put in the part about stacking or establish that the way stacking works is that way. The easiest way to proceed would be to simply say each is Tier 2, not say about using multiples, and then approve the article that way. Also, if possible, I'd love to see a history section added, which would be done by a forum "deep dive" searching for mentions of NSBs or Nodal Support Bits on the forum and seeing the RP examples and putting those in the wiki article.

 

[Wes]

Approved! I apologize for the wait, Rizzo!